[tde-users] Re: Mailing list etiquette [meta] top posting?

On Saturday 16 January 2021 21:47:15 Felix Miata wrote: I don't disagree with you, Felix. The TDE mailing list has used this same rule ever since TDE got started. With respect, however, this one thing is the single biggest cause for complaints among us all, and causes us to keep going round in these same ruts ... again and again and again ... round and round ... Yes, no top-posting *does* make logical sense, for flow of reading; no disagreements there. And in some ideal nerdist paradise, this is the way things *ought* to be. But in reality, about half of us never trim, or only seldom, while others top-post out of habit. So because of this one rule, no top-posting, we are put in the position of trying to reform others of their bad habits. But -- I am just guessing -- the main reasons that many of us do not trim the layers of posts are: 1) respect for the other person's views 2) one gets rather too enthusiastic, and wants to respond right NOW, and hits send a few seconds too soon. (We ought to remind ourselves, by the way, that every one of us are much less interesting to other people than we are to ourselves.) Now, if we would just top-post, like other emails in general, the dynamics are changed. It will be difficult to read backwards sometimes, but half of the offending posts are those layers upon layers of conversation which we are asked to trim. And the few lines of response are right at the top; no need to scroll through six screens to get to the punchline. And then, every so often somebody or other will come along and clean it up, trim off the layers that other people left neglected and untidy. Top-posting would just be SO much easier for everybody. Anyway, I will follow the group consensus, and try to abide by the rules and respect others. I just believe that we waste a lot of time complaining about what is readily fixed by changing this one thing. Bill